Harmonicas are well known in the art as a popular musical instrument. A player is able to produce sound, including musical tones, by “blowing” (exhaling) or “drawing” (inhaling) air into the harmonica to vibrate one or more reeds located within the instrument. It is one of few wind instruments, if not the only wind instrument, that is played or that produces sound during both the inhalation and exhalation phases of breathing. Accordingly, playing the harmonica requires a great deal of lung control from the harmonica player in order to produce strong, clear tones. This can include strong breathing, as extended harmonica playing requires a certain level of lung strength and capacity.
Generally speaking, there are a few different types of harmonicas which have been designed and used for different playing purposes. These include diatonic harmonicas, chromatic harmonicas, chord harmonicas and bass harmonicas.
Diatonic harmonicas are by far the most common and least expensive harmonicas in use today. Most have 10 holes and use Richter tuning. Each hole has a blow and a draw reed that, when tuned to the key of C Major, essentially plays the equivalent of the “white keys” of a piano. For example, a common note diagram for a conventional 10-note harmonica in the Key of C is shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1Note diagram for a conventional diatonic harmonicaBlow notesCEGCEGCEGCDraw NotesDGBDFABDFAHole No.12345678910
Chromatic harmonicas are more expensive and more complicated than diatonic harmonicas. Chromatic harmonicas have a button at one end that allows a different reed to enter both the blow or draw path when the button is pressed. Chromatic harmonicas are tuned to allow the player to play a chromatic scale (i.e. both the white keys and the black keys) of a piano within a certain range.
Chord harmonicas are configured to allow a player to play chords, or combinations of three or more notes (pitches). Chord harmonicas are very large, generally expensive, and uncommon. However, they are operable to allow a user to play multiple chords.
Chord harmonicas are longer than the other configurations of harmonicas and typically involve a type of mouthpiece which leads to at least three or more reeds to play each chord. Blowing or drawing on a designated area of a chord harmonica results in playing a particular chord. It is not possible to play the individual notes of each chord with a chord harmonica and all notes of the chord sound when either blowing or drawing. Furthermore, it is common to have 48 different chords available on a chord harmonica.
Bass harmonicas are typically uncommon and expensive. They allow a user to play very low-pitched bass notes. Furthermore, bass harmonicas typically are only played when blowing air through the harmonica and not when drawing air.
Referring to FIG. 1A, a conventional diatonic harmonica 1 is shown in an exploded view. The conventional diatonic harmonica 1 is made of five main layers including a cover plate 2, a blow reed plate 3, a body plate 4 (or comb), a draw reed plate 5 and a bottom cover plate 6. The five layers are mechanically coupled by coupling means 7. For example, a number of nuts and bolts may be used.
Looking at the blow reed plate 3 and the draw reed plate 5, a plurality of slots are shown to which metal reeds may be attached. Longer slots, corresponding to longer reeds, are for lower tones; while shorter slots and therefore shorter reeds, are for higher tones. As shown in FIG. 1A, conventional diatonic harmonicas 1 are configured such that the lowest tone or pitch starts on the left and progressively gets higher from left to right.
Referring now to FIG. 1B, a conventional diatonic harmonica 1 is shown in an isometric view. As assembled, the blow reed plate 3 and the draw reed plate 5 form a plurality of air channels 8 within the comb (body plate) 4. A plurality of channel dividers 9 separates each of the air channels 8 from one another. Air is then blown in or drawn from each air channel 8 vibrating the corresponding reed attached to the blow reed plate 3 or the draw reed plate 5, respectively. Each air channel 8 corresponds to a specific tone, which is typically configured according to Richter tuning corresponding to lower tones on the left progressing to higher tones on the right. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 1B, the channel dividers 9 are equally spaced and equally wide along the width of the conventional diatonic harmonica 1.
As mentioned, because a harmonica requires breathing control during both the blowing and drawing phases, it is an ideal instrument or tool for improving or rehabilitating the pulmonary system. Pulmonary or lung function is becoming increasingly important as the world's population ages. Epidemiological data reveals a 50% loss in lung function between the ages of 30 and 70. However, although it is normal to observe a decline in lung function as a person ages, it may not be desirable or optimal for good health and longevity.
Medical testing has improved dramatically in the area of pulmonary function. Tests have been developed to measure lung function and doctors are seeing increasing number of patients as the aging population swells. Long-term observations in clinical practice reveals that a rather significant proportion of patients who undergo pulmonary function testing are actually significantly below the statistical norm, taking into account individual variances due to age, sex, ethnicity, and height. While physical activity is often prescribed, clinical medical practice and observation in exercise physiology has revealed that aerobic endurance exercise prescribed for cardiac rehabilitation patients and advised for general fitness does not significantly benefit pulmonary function, even though it results in marked improvement in general fitness and heart function. Accordingly, it is generally accepted by medical and exercise physiology experts that general exercise does little to improve lung fitness and function.
While it might be concluded that a certain amount of lung function is lost during the aging process, observation has shown that individuals of different ages partaking in specific, identified activities have shown less of a decline in lung function compared to individuals who do not partake in such activities. For example, it has been shown or is commonly believed that activities such as horn playing, opera singing, breath-hold diving or free-diving, and the like, reduce the decline in lung function or even improve lung function when consistently undertaken. Accordingly, engaging in certain lung activities may be able to reduce the loss of lung function that is normally seen with aging. Specifically, reports from several North American and international pulmonary rehabilitation programs have suggested that harmonica playing may have pulmonary benefits.
However, conventional harmonicas have been found to be less than ideal when brought into clinical practice. Because traditional harmonica playing typically involves playing melodies, tunes, and riffs, clinical patients are typically taught to play scales and melodies. This is similar to the way most books and teaching methods advocate, with the harmonica as the lead instrument. Unfortunately, many clinical patients were frustrated by this technique, as beginning harmonica players, and particularly older patients, found it difficult to play single notes or tones, which requires advanced breathing and air flow control using a player's mouth and/or tongue. Furthermore, playing individual notes didn't result in the expected pulmonary benefits, as playing single tones was not challenging enough to the pulmonary system to produce the expected or desired results.
Finally, while it was appreciated that simply blowing and drawing strongly across a plurality of contiguous air channels required a greater pulmonary “effort”, resulting in a more challenging and beneficial exercise to the pulmonary system, it resulted in a loss of musicality. Specifically, making this noise by simply blowing or drawing across a plurality of air channels, rather than creating single notes, melodies, or music, removed much of the fun and desirability of playing the harmonica. As a result, compliance to a harmonica therapy regimen suffered.
Accordingly, there is a need for a harmonica that allows for playing notes and/or music that is physiologically challenging and effective to the pulmonary system to offset the reduction in lung function due to aging and other causes. Furthermore, there is a need for such a harmonica to be easy to play, especially for older harmonica players and players undergoing pulmonary rehabilitation. In addition, there is a need for such a harmonica and method of playing such a harmonica to be fun and to maintain a sense of musicality and desirability in order to improve and maintain compliance of a harmonica playing regimen.